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Fifth Generation Computers (10/12/1984)

Japan's fifth generation computer project and a look at the next phase of PC platforms. Shot in Japan.

Guests: Gary Kildall, Digital Research; Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, MCC; Ed Feigenbaum, Author; Dr. Hideo Aiso, Keio University; Dr. Yukio Mizuno, NEC; Dr. Hiroshi Kashiwagi, NSP; Dr. Kuzuhiro Fuchi, ICOT; Dr. Tohru Moto-Aka, Univ Tokyo

Products/Demos: KIP System, Pattern Matching, Inference Machine, Prologue


This movie is part of the collection: Computer Chronicles

Keywords: Episode year: 1985

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Reviewer: gdement - - June 5, 2008
Subject: Quite boring, but skip to "random access" at the end
This is a dull discussion of AI based "5th generation" "expert systems". The guest explains the meaning of intelligence in that wonderfully tedious and abstract manner that we know and love from college professors.

There is eventually a demo of an AI system which attempts to diagnose drilling problems at remote oil wells. It's apparently just an If->then algorithmic machine, not a neural net or anything exciting.

The primary motivation for the topic seems to be concerns that the US would fall behind the Japanese in artificial intelligence. The Japanese were of course a surging and feared economic competitor in the 80's, before they plateaued.

The "random access" segment at the end earns a star, as it has several news items of historical interest. Nolan Bushnell signing on to the Commodore CDTV project and the success of Lotus 1-2-3 get mentioned. Coleco is determined to release the ADAM before Christmas, but ominously there are concerns about the quality of the software. Also mentioned are efforts by American chipmakers to regain share of the RAM market from the Japanese.